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R Strauss - Eine Alpensinfonie, 4 Lieder op.27

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Label: Ondine

Cat No: ODE14792

Barcode: 0761195147924

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Release Date: 5th December 2025

Works

Strauss, Richard

Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), op.64
Lieder (4), op.27

Artists

Louise Alder (soprano)
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Nicholas Collon

Works

Strauss, Richard

Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), op.64
Lieder (4), op.27

Artists

Louise Alder (soprano)
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Nicholas Collon

About

The series of award-winning recordings by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon continues with a new album of orchestral works by Richard Strauss (1864–1949). This release includes Strauss’s longest and final major orchestral work, the Alpine Symphony together with Four Songs, op.27, sung by soprano Louise Alder, one of the most in-demand singers today.

Recalling a mountain trek from his childhood, Strauss completed An Alpine Symphony, op.64, the longest and grandest of his orchestral works, in February 1915. Strauss wrote his orchestral work following a fruitful period that had produced several operas, including Salome, Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier. Although Strauss gave the title “symphony” to his Alpine-inspired work, its pictorial and narrative characteristics, episodic form and thematic metamorphosis all suggest an affinity with the tone-poem genre. The work is sub-divided into twenty-two sections, some very brief and all clearly marked in the score. Its orchestration requires at least 125 players, the largest ensemble in Strauss’s entire output. Unusual instruments include heckelphone, Wagner tubas, organ, cow-bells, wind machine, thunder machine and a battalion of off-stage horns, trumpets and trombones. As Strauss was sketching the work in May 1911, he heard of Mahler’s death, a major loss to the musical world but also one which affected him personally. They had known each other for twenty-four years. Although the two composers’ aesthetics differed in significant ways Strauss did conduct several of Mahler’s symphonies and was influenced by him.

Strauss composed more than 200 songs, many with his wife’s soprano voice in mind. His Four Songs, op.27, are particularly intimate: Strauss presented them to his wife Pauline de Ahna as a wedding gift upon their marriage in September 1894. From these songs, Strauss composed Cäcilie in the evening of 9 September, the day before his marriage to Pauline. These four songs on love are lavishly orchestrated and Strauss returned to orchestrate these songs still half a century later, in the 1940s.

One of the most in demand artists today, British soprano Louise Alder has firmly established herself as “an instinctive singing-actress” (The Arts Desk) and “a terrific talent, combining a big, lustrous voice with flawless intonation and keen intelligence” (The Times). A hugely versatile artist she is equally at home in the world’s most important opera, concert and recital venues such as Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, Carnegie Hall and the Wigmore Hall, where she held a widely acclaimed artistic residency in 2024. Alder is set to make a thrilling debut at the Metropolitan Opera in the highly anticipated 2025–26 season. A hugely acclaimed recitalist, her appearances include the BBC Proms, the Musikverein in Graz, Madrid’s Fundación Juan March and the Fundación Privada Victoria de los Ángeles in Barcelona, Snape Maltings, and the Oxford International Song Festival. A former member of the ensemble of Oper Frankfurt, Alder studied at the Royal College of Music’s International Opera School where she was the inaugural Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar. She is the winner of the Young Singer Award at the 2017 International Opera Awards; the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition; the 2015 inaugural Young British Soloists’ Competition; and is the recipient of Glyndebourne's 2014 John Christie Award.

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle), and its mission is to produce and promote Finnish musical culture. The Radio Orchestra of ten players founded in 1927 grew to symphony orchestra proportions in the 1960s. Its Chief Conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Sakari Oramo, Hannu Lintu, and as of autumn 2021 Nicholas Collon. In addition to the great Classical-Romantic masterpieces, the latest contemporary music is a major item in the repertoire of the FRSO, which each year premieres a number of Yle commissions. The FRSO has twice won a Gramophone Award: for its album of Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto in 2006 and of Bartók Violin Concertos in 2018. Other distinctions have included BBC Music Magazine, Académie Charles Cros, MIDEM Classical awards and Grammy nominations in 2020 and 2021. Its album of tone poems and songs by Sibelius won an International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in 2018. In 2023, the orchestra was nominated for Gramophone’s Orchestra of the Year award and won a Gramophone Award for their Lotta Wennäkoski album.

British conductor Nicholas Collon is recognised for his elegant conducting style, searching musical intellect and inspirational music-making. He began as Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony in August 2021 – the first non-Finnish conductor ever to hold this post. From 2016–2021 he was Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in Den Haag (latterly also Artistic Advisor) and was Principal Guest of Gürzenich-Orchester from 2017–2022. He also leads the Aurora Orchestra in their residencies at Kings Place and at the Southbank, where they have reinvented the concert format with their “Orchestral Theatre” Series. Together they appear regularly at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Cologne Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and festivals such as Bremen, Rheingau, Schleswig Holstein, Gstaad, and the BBC Proms where they perform every year in their hugely popular memorised performances.

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Vier Lieder, op.27 (1894): 1. Ruhe, meine Seele!
2

Vier Lieder, op.27 (1894): 2. Cacilie
3

Vier Lieder, op.27 (1894): 3. Heimliche Aufforderung (orch. Robert Heger)
4

Vier Lieder, op.27 (1894): 4. Morgen!
5

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 1. Nacht
6

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 2. Sonnenaufgang
7

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 3. Der Anstieg
8

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 4. Eintritt in den Wald
9

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 5. Wanderung neben dem Bache
10

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 6. Am Wasserfall
11

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 7. Erscheinung
12

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 8. Auf blumigen Wiesen
13

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 9. Auf der Alm
14

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 10. Durch Dickicht und Gestrüpp auf Irrwegen
15

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 11. Auf dem Gletscher
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Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 12. Gefahrvolle Augenblicke
17

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 13. Auf dem Gipfel
18

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 14. Vision
19

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 15. Nebel steigen auf
20

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 16. Die Sonne verdüstert sich allmählich
21

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 17. Elegie
22

Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 18. Stille vor dem Sturm
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Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 19. Gewitter und Sturm, Abstieg
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Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 20. Sonnenuntergang
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Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 21. Ausklang
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Eine Alpensinfonie, op.64 (1915): 22. Nacht

Europadisc Review

Although he only took over the reins of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra from Hannu Lintu as recently as 2021, Nicholas Collon has already been making his mark with them in a string of acclaimed recordings on the Ondine label. Collon is best known to British audiences for his work with the Aurora Orchestra, including their hugely successful Proms appearances, performed entirely from memory. As the first non-Finn to be appointed chief conductor of the FRSO, he has burnished his credentials in late-Romantic, 20th-century and contemporary repertoires, including a widely-praised account of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with combined choral forces from Helsinki and Cambridge.

Now he leads his Finnish players in a disc devoted to one of Elgar’s greatest continental admirers, Richard Strauss. The main work is the vast 1915 tone-poem Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), which very often appears on its own on a single disc, or coupled with one of the earlier, shorter tone-poems. Here, however, it is paired with the Four Lieder, op.27, originally composed as a wedding gift for Strauss’s wife Pauline in 1894, and later sumptuously orchestrated by Strauss (nos. 1, 2 and 4) and Robert Heger (no.3). The soloist is soprano Louise Alder, whose natural gifts as a Straussian were abundantly clear on her 2017 album ‘Through Life and Love’, accompanied by pianist Joseph Middleton. The same ‘silvery glimmer’ that we noted then is no less evident against the backdrop of a full orchestra, ringing with a bell-like clarity, yet thoughtfully shaped to reflect a lively engagement with the texts.

The opening song, ‘Ruhe, meine Seele!’, opens with sombre tones, yet there’s a transparency to the orchestral textures and a vulnerability to Alder’s tone that are deeply touching. Both ‘Cäcilie’ and ‘Heimliche Aufforderung’ burst into life with rapt gestures and are keenly paced, but the set’s crowning glory is a wonderfully sensitive performance of ‘Morgen!’, in which Alder’s caressing tones are matched by the solo violin playing of Yoonshin Song. This account reinforces our view that the op.27 songs deserve to be known as a set every bit as well as the later, autumnal Four Last Songs.

From the intimacy of the lieder to the vastness of the Alpine Symphony might seem like a huge leap, but in fact Collon’s performance of the latter, while never underselling its more imposing moments, has an athleticism and attention to nuance (particularly balance and dynamics) that makes the coupling surprisingly successful, particularly when recorded by the Ondine team with such warmth and immediacy. From the very early stages, this is a notably purposeful reading, one that revels in the nature-sounds and evocations of the score, but also its glances beyond nature (in such sections as ‘Apparition’, ‘Vision’ and ‘Elegy’).

There have, perhaps, been more vividly conveyed individual sound effects in the ‘Alpine Pasture’ section, but the passage ‘At the Waterfall’ fizzes with energy, and the doggedly determined ‘Entry into the Forest’ and false route ‘Through Thickets and Undergrowth’ pay dividends when we eventually reach the summit, with its seductively swooning string phrases. All the sections of the orchestra deserve praise here, but perhaps above all the highly characterful woodwind, who take this performance beyond the usual sonic spectacular to a work that celebrates both the natural world and human character and resilience.

The way in which Collon maintains the tension forward drive while allowing space for the music’s more poetic elements means that the work’s closing pages emerge as even more touching and intimate than usual. If you’re one of those listeners who still thinks that Eine Alpensinfonie is little more than an exercise in nature-inspired orchestral bombast, you really ought to give this recording a chance. The more spectacular moments are never downplayed, but they are integrated into a cogently expressive and structured musical whole. All in all, this disc provides plenty of reasons to hope that the same team will be tackling more Strauss in the near future!

Reviews

The ascent and descent depicted in Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony can seem like a long slog, but not in the bracing new recording from the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Nicholas Collon’s conducting keeps the sound clean and the pace dynamic, capturing the hulking, almost supernatural grandeur of the mountain at the opening and the close, and the detail of the natural world viewed in between... Louise Alder is the soloist in Strauss’s four Op 27 songs, which suit her beautifully; her gleaming soprano sound is buoyantly supported by the orchestra and, whether the music is portentous, exuberant or tender, she’s unfailingly communicative with the text. Erica Jeal

The Guardian 5 December 2025

All four songs are beautifully done, benefiting from Louise Alder’s impeccable singing: intelligent, sensitive and spun out with irresistible, silvery tone.

In the symphony, meanwhile, Collon reveals himself as a natural Straussian. Tempos are finally judged, and he paces the work instinctively, avoiding exaggeration and taking care with the composer’s dynamics... With the bonus of the superb coupling, this is another distinguished addition to this conductor and orchestra’s burgeoning discography. Hugo Shirley

Gramophone December 2025

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Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

Condition	Description
New	Brand new item, only ever sourced from the official UK distributor. Usually seal-wrapped, although a minority of labels do not use seal-wrap.
Used - Mint	Used item in excellent condition. Not usually seal-wrapped.
Used - Good	Used item with some minor signs of wear and tear. Never seal-wrapped.
Used - Acceptable	Used item with obvious scuffs or cosmetic damage to the case or booklet. Never seal-wrapped.

R Strauss - Eine Alpensinfonie, 4 Lieder op.27

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Contents

Works

Artists

Conductor

Works

Artists

Conductor

About

Sound/Video

Paused

Europadisc Review

Reviews

Also Available

£14.26

£14.26

£25.71

£14.26

£14.26

Condition Information

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